Tag: murder

Back on Boxing Day (strangely) I posted a murder poem called Lizzie. I wasn’t thinking about murder, Christmas was quite a pleasant affair.

I do enjoy reading my poems out but don’t think I could ever face a crowd doing it but I can mask it with the power of video (insert reverb and 1980’s sound effects here). I would like to create versions to go along with all my written work eventually. I don’t know what’s come over me getting all these videos done…..actually I do, I downloaded the free software VSDC for video editing. If I didn’t have such a terrible laptop I probably would have created a few more fancy videos but it likes to crash on me which means I’m sticking with simple.

This poem is inspired by a real murder in the woods near where I live that happened back in 1919. It’s a difficult personal historical story to read about. It reads like it was a shockingly destructive relationship (and that’s a kind description) from both Henry and Lizzie and that was before her murdered her. How he committed the act was spectacularly horrid.

I’m not a big rhymer so I’m not entirely happy with this at all. I’m going to re-visit it again in the future and will probably do another version.

So I took the plunge after some encouraging nagment from Bee and recorded a murder poem I wrote back in the summer and posted it on YouTube here. Yes that’s right a murder poem. It didn’t start out that way, I was just enjoying the walks we took on a local nature reserve where we would bake in the sun along a particularly quiet stretch where the gorse has overtaken the area and has created a passageway. I was quite surprised to realise that the bright sunshine mimicking flowers of the gorse smell a little bit like coconut and candy floss. Mix that in with me reading a bit on the history of the area and finding a couple of gruesome stories at that same sort of time and this is what happened. Actually it’s not quite that cut and dry, but a tale for another time.

Follow me down.

Follow me down
Where the sun beats the rhythm
and join me basking near rocks with lizards.
The gorse will hide us in it’s own sunshine
with crackling shells and tropical smells.
We can share with the hoverflies and bees near hawthorn trees.
Won’t you follow me here and beside me lie?
You can show me the clouds
and I will smile and listen as this symphony thickens.
Won’t you follow me down and smile and lie and dream and laugh before you die?
My hands are as soft as the moss we lie on and your throat will be handled with care.
But first let’s take the time to stop and stare
Don’t want you to be aware
I’d rather see the surprise in your eyes and your questions why
as my soft hands kiss your skin so shy.
Follow me down,
Follow me down and die.